Vacumatic Jewel Replacement

[Scrawler]

I am not sure if this should be here or in the Repair Q&A forum.

 

I have a fairly tatty (gouged and worn) 1935 lock down filler vacumatic. It is basically black with strong ambering and some transparency. It is missing the jewel on its blind cap. I have a cap jewel from a 1946 vac that was destroyed by glue and a hacksaw. That cap jewel is just about the right size and screws into the blind cap. It is however a little over 1MM too long.

 

Before I make a mistake I will regret, I was wondering if anyone had advice on shrinking a black plastic jewel.

[sherbie]

I,m sure Ron or one of the many repair experts will chime in soon enough, but why not just file away the 1 mm excess - i presume from the bottom of the screw threads?

Edited November 2, 2013 by sherbie

[Ron Z]

Sherbie is right. If you can screw the jewel into the blind cap and it fits the tassie as it should but the stem is too long, you should file it shorter. Anything attempt to "shrink" the material will damage the rest of the jewel. A bit tricky to do because it's tough to hold these little things and cut or file them without damaging the threads.

 

Blind cap jewel stems usually are short, but even so you may not need to shorten it. Try screwing it in first and see if it hits or pushes the plunger down before shortening it. If it doesn't interfere with the plunger, leave it as it is.

[Scrawler]

Yes the only thing wrong is that the threaded part is too long. I figured I could file it or grind it off with a dremel. But as I do not know what they are made of, I was wondering if it could be cut through with a hot wire or something. I was trying to avoid plastic dust. It looks like I will just have to set the whole thing in wax ( to hold it, because it is small) and just file it off.

[Ron Z]

They're celliloid

[OcalaFlGuy]

As thin as those threads have to be, and as thin as the stem is, I'd be inclined to try and put a stout single edge razor blade at the desired thread and use the blade to roll the stem around cutting it,

 

Seems about as exact as I can come up with.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl